Paris 2

A wonderful hotel to stay at would be the Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel which is on the Seine and has a wonderful view og the Eiffel Tower.

This image is from http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-3546-novotel-paris-tour-eiffel. This is a 4 star hotel and the walk to the Eiffel tower will take you through the wonderful streets of Paris and you can certainly walk along The Seine although I would probably take some of the side streets to find some local shops and restaurants. My goal when I am overseas is to make sure that I am able to eat what the locals eat to get a feel for the true foods of the country.

This hotel is a bit pricey but for the location and the ambiance, if you can swing it would be a wonderful place to stay. The reviews that I saw were not all that impressive but for the view I would say it would be worth it unless the hotel is absolutely awful and I saw no reviews like that.

The walk to the Eiffel Tower would take a bit of time but think of the areas that you would have the opportunity to see. And from what I have read of Paris in most places you can actually rent bicycles for a fairly low price and see the city that way. While I would certainly not want to ride a bike down something like the Champs Elysee for the side streets and for basic site seeing I think it would be the best way to go.

So we have had our first nights stay in Paris and we have gotten up first thing in the morning at the Novotel Paris Tour Eiffel and now we can start our tour of Paris with a wonderful breakfast. Not far from the hotel just across the river is a Restaurant that opens at 9AM that sounds fabulous. The SARL Chaumette, from what I have been able to find out, would be a great first stop when you get up for that first morning in Paris. They serve American food if you are not feeling adventurous that early but they also have what appears to be standard French Cuisine as well. Never having been to France I am guessing at that but the menu looks very interesting.

This would be a great way to start a trip to Paris after a long flight and a good nights sleep.

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Paris

Since I live in Pennsylvania, USA I of course will be flying from the East Coast. A nonstop flight from the East coast to Paris takes 7 ½ to 8 ½ hours depending on what city you leave from as well as the flight path but that time frame will be fairly close for the most part. Many people say that you should fly overnight and sleep on the plane so as to arrive in the morning hours and then just spend all day and go to sleep that night and it will take care of any jet lag you may experience. That may work for some but keep in mind that when you go get into Paris at perhaps 9AM, there is a 6 hour time difference from the east coast so while it will be daylight and you will be good to go having just woken up, you will probably need to end up in your room fairly early that first evening. 9AM Paris time is good but as far as your body is concerned it will be 3AM.

I personally do not sleep well on planes. I love to fly but for some reason I rarely do anything but nap occasionally. What works for me is to try and arrive in the mid-evening, get dinner and spend the evening looking at whatever happens to be open. I then go to bed, a bit late perhaps, but when I get up the next morning my lag is pretty much gone. That may not work for everyone but it does for me.

So in my case I would be arriving in Paris at night so here we have a night landing in Paris from the cockpit so you see what the pilots see as they land from http://www.youtube.com

At the very beginning you will see a flashing lite before the camera pans to the right and that is the light on the top of the Eiffel Tower.

From the Airport of course you would need to get to your hotel. I would probably take the train unless you have arranged to rent a car and have the appropriate international driver's license. According to http://europeforvisitors.com you can get to within 500 meters of any hotel in Paris using the train from the airport and making a connection to another train once you get into the city. Research this first so you know what trains you need to take. You can of course also take a bus or taxi but where is the adventure in that?

Figure 1 CDG Airport Metro (A Google Street View picture from http://www.panoramio.com )

I will leave you here for now since in most cases you will want to at least rest a bit after a pretty long trip.

Next Destination

I have decided that my next posting for this blog will be about Paris. I had intended for my posts to be about traveling to countries in general but some locations, such as Paris, just cry out for their own series of posts. I am doing my research now and should be able to start posting in the next day or so. If anyone would like to hear about any particular part of Paris or about any location I research please feel free to comment on the blog and I would be happy to do so. I would also welcome any photos that you might have that would work for this blog and I will certainly give full credit for any that I use.

Greece conclusion

I apologize to all for this series of posts. It was not nearly as well done as I had wanted. I rushed it due to some time constraints in my life. I can assure all that my posts going forward will be more thoroughly researched.

I have missed a number of things about Greece although I did hit on some of the highlights. I missed the Temples to the Gods in various areas of the country as well as parts of Athens that would be enjoyable to all such as the Museums, the Plaka neighborhood and market and the nightlife scene in the Kolanaki area of Athens.

I will end this post here and I will be back with yet another country that I wish to visit someday.

Greece part 5

We have seen Athens and treated ourselves to the sites and food here so it is time to go onward to more of Greece. After Athens the thing to do would be to check out some of the islands such as Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. The beaches here on the Aegean Sea and some of the finest beaches you will find and are visited by tourists from all over the world.

Beaches of course are not all we want to see. There is still plenty of history that we have not yet seen. Crete, for example, was the site of the Minoan culture and there are things to see here dating back many thousands of years. Mykonos not only has history but my research shows that it is also one of the most popular tourist areas for Europeans with a wonderful history as well as what is apparently some pretty intense nightlife. This is someplace that I certainly want to experience when I can.

I will leave you know enjoying the islands and return in a few days to move onward.